Another visit to a recommended Mexican take-out in Chatsworth to explore their menu. We mixed it up by buying a carnitas burrito and carnitas chimichanga. Deep frying doesn’t add anything positive to the taste or texture!

Lunch today was $7.00 a serve with tax and tip.

Dinner

On what we hope is the last night of this particular heat wave, a salad was definitely called for, and what better than a Cobb?

Blue cheese crumbles are $3.49 for the pack and we used about 1/3 or 58c per serve.

You can tell by the deep gold yolk that these are pastured eggs: 50c each -one per serve – but worth it for the taste.

Avocados are 65c per serve.

Bacon ends and pieces is $3.49 per pack. We used about 20% of the container or 35c per serve

The turkey breast is $5.99 a pack, and we used the second half, or $1.50 per serve

The organic baby plum tomatoes were $2.79 for the pack or $1.40 per serve.

New York strip steak from our Prather Ranch delivery, with slow cooked broccoli. The broccoli takes on an entirely different character when slow cooked with onion, and the feta added at the end adds a creamy overlay while the red pepper flakes give it an appealing heat.

You’ll notice the rash of feta-based recipes. Once the Valbreso tin is opened, it needs to be used before it goes off. That’s a possible downside of truly natural ingredients: they will spoil.

Dry aged NY Strip Steak is $20.47 or $10.24 per serve

The broccoli was $1.50 or 75c per serve

Onion and red pepper flakes add about 10c per serve

The Valbreso feta is $9.99 for a 600g tin, of which we used 1/6, or 83c per serve.

Dinner tonight was a great balance and cost $11.92. You should give the slow cooked broccoli a try, even if you think you don’t like broccoli.

No roasted chicken available at the supermarket, so we opted for pre-cooked, pre-sliced turkey breast, with the left over Edamame, Quinoa and feta salad.

The flatbread is 50c

The turkey breast is $5.99 a pack, and we used half, or $1.50 per serve

The edamame salad was $1.36 per serve

Hummus is $3.99 per container and we used about 1/6 or 33c per serve.

Lunch today cost $3.69 per serve, although there was way too much salad for the wrap, but it was delicious.

Dinner

Since wild caught, sockeye salmon was on special we decided to build a meal around it, by modifying a ‘rice bowl’ recipe, which is a simple red (Spanish) rice base, with a cucumber and avocado topping. The avocado and cucumber were ‘marinated’ in rice wine vinegar, which enhanced the cucumber flavor and counterbalanced the fat in the avocado.

The salmon was pan seared to crispen the skin, then finished in a hot over to cook the salmon. A little teriyaki was added to the pan just before serving.

The salmon was on special for $9.47, or $4.73 per serve

The red rice is $3.49 a pack, or 58c per serve

Two avocado’s were $2.58 but we used only one, or 65c per serve

A box of Persian cucumbers was $2.49, and we used 1/4, or 32c per serve

Another Burbank Monday, and In and Out Burger for Foodie Philip. Foodie Greg had left-over rissoles and salad already accounted for.

Lunch today cost $4.03 with tax.

Dinner

Because Quinoa puffs up so much during cooking, we had a lot left over from the salad last night. Since we’d enjoyed a Cauliflower ‘fried rice’ in the past a similar experiment with quinoa seemed like a good idea.

It was a good idea. Very tasty. Three generous serves resulted.

We purchased about half a pound of quinoa for $3.01 but used the 3/4 left, or 75c per serve

Five organic eggs are 50c each, or 83c per serve

Bacon ends and pieces are $3.49 per pack. We used about 30% of the container or 35c per serve

Frozen peas are $2.79 per pack and we used about 1/3 or 31c per serve

Onion, ginger, spring onion, soy and other ingredients add another 45c per serve.

An Australian classic, rissoles are like individually fried, tiny meatloaves! Lots of that loverly outer crust gets formed!

Served with a salad from cooked edamame, quinoa that was cooked earlier in the day, and – of course – more of that Valbreso feta! The recipe makes four serves and is based on a lunch salad we used to buy at Sprouts.

The ground beef came direct from the farm in our Prather Ranch meat delivery.

Dry aged 85/15 ground beef $8.57 or $4.29 per serve

8 oz Panko breadcrumbs are $2.99 and we used half, or 75c per serve

A pastured egg is 50c or 25c per serve

The onion is 6c per serve

We purchased about half a pound of quinoa for $3.01 but used only 1/4 of that, or 19c per serve

The Valbreso feta is $9.99 for a 600g tin, of which we used 1/6, or 42c per serve

The cooked edamame came from Trader Joe’s and was $2.49, or 63c per serve

We added some picked fire roasted red bell pepper that are $5.99 a jar and we used a quarter, or 38c per serve

A pack of fire roasted corn kernels is $2.49 but we used about 1/4 of the pack, or 16c per serve.

The salad was really good and we served the rissoles with a little of my brother’s home-made tomato relish, another Australian classic. Dinner tonight cost $7.13 per serve.

Thursday night is traditionally our steak night, but this week we’re off by one day! Fortunately cooking on the griddle over the induction cooktop doesn’t generate much heat, and a salad requires no heat!

The Balsamic Strawberry and Cucumber salad has been a long time favorite of ours. We had it sufficiently often that Foodie Greg became bored with it, so it’s been a while! Marinating the strawberries in the balsamic vinegar transforms them. The cucumber and blue cheese bring perfect balancing notes.

As usual, we prepare these dry aged, organic steaks with just a sear to the outside. That also keeps the amount of heat generated to a minimum.

The steak came from our Prather Ranch delivery and cost $9.98 per serve

We used half the $2.99 punnet of strawberries, or 75c per serve

A box of Persian cucumbers was $2.49, and we used about half, or 63c per serve

Blue cheese comes in a $6.99 tub, but we used so little, it comes to 22c a serve

Something different was called for when we discovered we had a ripe avocado in the fridge. The secret to the success of this meal was Trader Joe’s Chile Lime Seasoning Blend which is amazingly good. We can’t wait to try this on watermelon!

The avocado was $1.49 and we shared it, for 75c per serve

The English muffin is 50c per serve

Add 20c for arugula and the seasoning.

Lunch today cost $1.45 per serve.

Dinner

While we’ve had a Muffaleta Pasta Salad before, this was an interesting variation using Cheese Tortellini as the pasta and cheese components. It worked very well.

Regardless of what the recipe says, this makes four serves.

The tortellini cost $7.49 or $1.88 per serve

The salami cost $3.50 or 87c per serve

Black olives cost $2.40 or 60c per serve

Green olives cost $2.40 or 60c per serve

The bunch of organic parsley was $1.49, but we only used 1/6 or around 10c per serve